World-renowned historian and Oxford University professor Margaret Macmillan explores the reasons for the outbreak of the First World War, which followed a long period of peace in Europe, which seemed to continue to promise it prosperity and progress. The author examines the main political and technological transformations of Europe in the years preceding the war, that is, from the end of the 19th century. until August 1914, when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. Analyzing the ideas, feelings and decisions that, out of control, upset the balance and led Europe to disaster, MacMillan provides a vivid, imaginative description of the participants in the events and an analysis of the motives for their actions. Margaret MacMillan's book is a brilliant study and the most complete account of the last years of old Europe.